The court pulled up the Maharashtra government over the way it was implementing the order on 10 per cent EWS quota in post-graduate medical and dental courses.
It directed the government to prepare a revised merit list for admission in post-graduate medical courses after removing the EWS quota given to students.
The court also threatened the Maharashtra government with contempt proceedings against its officials in the event of non-compliance of its direction to revise the merit list, after the state government said that the EWS quota cannot be implemented for the 2019-20 academic year.
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the state's decision to introduce the 10 per cent quota for academic year 2019-20 in the postgraduate medical courses.
The apex court said the state could not apply it after the admission process had begun in November 2018. At least two dozen candidates from the economically weaker section (EWS) would be affected due to the top court's decision.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said: "We deem it proper to declare that the notification of the State of Maharashtra, dated March 7, insofar as the admission to post-graduate medical courses is concerned, will have no application to the ongoing process of selection, so as to enable the representatives of the EWS to avail the benefit of reservation for admission to post-graduate medical courses."
The court said the modalities of selection couldn't be changed after initiation of the admission process and the Maharashtra government couldn't change the rule of the game while the game was on.
The court also observed while passing the order that it had kept in mind balance and claim of equity.
"While making the above declaration, we have kept in mind the need to balance the competing claims which balance could be upset by claim of equity, if the reserved category candidates are allowed to undergo the medical course(s) and in the event their admission is found to be untenable at a later stage of the present proceedings," observed the court.
( With inputs from IANS )